Archive for December 23rd, 2008

I’ve recently started re-reading Peter Enns’ book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. Enns’ “incarnational analogy” of Scripture is basically that Christ being the “Word of God” is equally fully man and fully God, and so is Scripture being the “Word of God” is equally fully human and fully God. I have been moved by the following:

Enns explains that the difference between Jewish interpretation and Christian interpretation of Scripture is that Judaism engages tensions and ambiguities and even suggests that Scripture allows for tensions in order to invite the interpreter to “problem solving.” On the other hand, as so in my experience, evangelicals tend to sweep tensions “under the rug” (so to speak). About evangelical Christian interpretation, Enns correctly states:

As quite distinct from Jewish interpretation, the history of modern evangelical interpretation exhibits a strong degree of discomfort with the tensions and ambiguities of Scripture. The assumptions often made are that Scripture should have no tensions and that any such tensions are not real but introduced from the outside, namely, by scholarship hostile to evangelical Christianity. Whatever tensions remain are addressed either by posing some direct solution (however ingenious) or by moving the problem to the side (”We know it has to fit somehow; we just aren’t sure how”).

p. 72, Enns, P. (2005). Inspiration and incarnation: evangelicals and the problem of the Old Testament. Baker: Grand Rapids.

For more quotes, which I found noteworthy, go here.

I don’t write about sports too much on this blog, but I do pay close attention to it so maybe I will write more about sports in the future.

So, apparently, the Yankees, after signing CC Sabathia for $161 million and signing AJ Burnett for $82.5 million, are now signing Mark Teixeira paying him $180 million for 8 years. All I have to say is, “Enough is enough.”

Maybe, I understand this a little more now than I did before because I recently lost my job. The Yankees’ administration, in their high spending, is what’s wrong with humanity when it gets loads of cash — we think we can always buy what we want. In their case, it’s a world championship. The economy as it is, and unemployment as it is, the Yankees have the audacity (yes, audacity) to throw this amount of money to baseball player (people who get paid to play a game 12 year-old boys play for fun, mind you).

It’s not just the Yankees. Professional sports just go way to far with this. I don’t claim to know anything about economics, but what about who produce so much more than what they get paid for? Like farmers? What about janitors? Or factory workers? What about inner-city teachers? Or social workers? (Or pastors?) Or my mailman? Or police officers? These people pour their hearts out (many of which simply support multi-million dollar companies somewhere) and get little return for what they produce. I suppose, what I am saying is that our economy needs to be turned on its head, and we need to spread some of the wealth (this isn’t an Obama plug, but, if you want it to be, then, I’m OK with that). I mean, seriously, my junior high janitor cleaned the whole school, and what did he get paid? Minimum wage?

I know I have friends who are fans of the Yankees. My main argument is not against the Yankees (necessarily; If the Phillies did it, it would be a problem, too), but against (a) the continual “fiscal flaunting” of the “haves” when the economy is in shambles and (b) our upside-down economy where the “have-nots” produce way more than what they get paid for.

Dear Yankees, Dear CEOs, Dear America, Dear Obama, Dear President Bush, Dear World, enough is enough.